HEROIN
“Heroin” is a song by The Velvet Underground, released on their 1967 debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Written by Lou Reed in 1964, the song, which overtly depicts heroin use and abuse, is one of the band’s most celebrated compositions. Critic Mark Deming writes, “While ‘Heroin’ hardly endorses drug use, it doesn’t clearly condemn it, either, which made it all the more troubling in the eyes of many listeners”. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked it #455 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. (More from Wikipedia)
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the Velvet Underground often creates beautiful and mellow songs, and one need go no further than the opening track on their first album to find it – the laid-back “Sunday Morning” is every bit as lovely as a song with that name should be, but it is coming from the same band that created harrowing tales like “Heroin” and “Sister Ray”. A compilation album called VU collected several similarly mellow songs that were intended for the Velvet Underground’s never-released fourth album.
(December 2013)
